Queen of Storms

by Via

[4] Gryphum

Gryphum

---

The skies split with lightning. The skies stayed split.

---

As the mountain hovered over me for a split second, I realized how immensely powerful Discord was. Telekinesis and Teleportation were the easiest and hardest utility spells respectively, for a myriad of reasons. Telekinesis was innate to all species in some degree that had magic. Tactile Telekinesis is how Earth Ponies and Pegasi can write with their hooves. But not to a high degree. Tactile Telekinesis was proportionate to physical strength, but Active Telekinesis was proportionate to how much weight you were lifting. Anything under a pound or so would be negligible - but as the weight got higher and higher the cost of telekinesis would scale up exponentially. I could lift a pound of stone for a decade before I would have any noticeable drain on my magic. Lifting up a thousand pounds would be significantly harder to say the least.

Teleportation was an incredibly hard spell to pull off successfully. In addition to being incredibly costly, teleportation is done by propelling yourself into the aether, the realm of pure magic, creating a magical shield around you and launching yourself forward then exiting safely in the span of under a second. It requires fast reflexes, lots of practice, and is incredibly dangerous as if the shield isn't properly formed you could lose yourself in the aether and become pure magic. Or lose limbs, rarely did people lose themselves in the aether unintentionally.

I believe I haven't gone into enough detail about the size of a dragon and drakon, who grow about the same rate. Born the size of a cat, grow to the size of a house with a proper diet over fifteen years, then it's all upwards from there. King Bellum wasn't that much smaller than Mount Draelos, and had to tear out a huge chunk of it to break himself free, and was incredibly long. The dragon that had been torn from the mountain was about three quarters of Bellum's size.

Discord had telekinetically lifted a dragon, already an impressive feat no matter the age but the older a drakon or dragon got the stronger their magical resistance. The fact that he could effect a dragon of that age already meant he had more power than I could comprehend. But the fact that he teleported at least a million tons of mountain with no visible effort? How strong was he? How strong was Glory, who's blade alone he had been afraid of? How strong was Bellum, who wounded this monster?

Oh, yes. The mountain. Shooting towards me at...a fast speed. I would definitely die if it would hit me, so...I had to run. I leapt away as far as I could in one go before using the momentum from my jump to begin running, as fast as I can but the shadow got thicker and thicker and seemed to stretch into infinity. It was going to hit me. I was going to die - and there was nothing I could do about it. I couldn't move fast enough. But there was one alternative that would either kill me extremely painfully, or save me.

The glyphs in it were many. But I understood what they meant.

Mys - Magic. Magic is my power. Magic is my will. Magic is my reality, supplementing our own. And it was through this magic, through this power travelling from my soul into my ley that I would perform this spell.
Creut - Cut. And this is what I would do with my magic. I would cut, tear a hole in something, slice something open so that I could fit through it.
Asptra - Space. This is what I could cut through. Out of space, still in time, into-
Aesr - Magic. Magic is what I would enter. Magic is my power, but magic is also the aether. Mys is your own magic, Aesr is the magic of the world itself.
Moreut - Movement. I would move through the Aesr under my power, under my mystic-
Fres - Force. Propelling myself forwards with it.
Boryd - Body. My body would be submerged in the aether. A pony would die instantly in the aether, a draconic would survive three seconds at best, and a Spirit would be able to survive an entire minute. The presence of Boryd was for a base for-
Prosr - Protect. I would protect my body from the aether.
Creut - Cut. Finally, I would cut again - and I would exit the aether.

My magic filled out the runes and for a tiny, tiny second, I saw infinity. I saw more magic than was possible, magic that made my mind hurt to think about. There was a pain in my head, a pounding as I felt the aether pound and eat away at my magic shield. And I saw visions. I saw a gryphon, standing proud and tall. I saw the sun and the moon encompassed in a storm that consumed the entire world - and then, as I was being pulled out of the aether, I caught a glimpse of a colossal white dragon, staring directly at me. And the dragon smiled.

I was thrown out of the aether screaming. The grass was wet underneath me, and I hadn't perfectly teleported. In addition to losing my left hind claw, my right hind leg was crushed underneath the rockslide from the collapsing mountain, the scales cracking and the flesh tearing. The bone was only barely intact as I threw a wave of telekinetic force at the mountain and dislocated just enough rock to land on my leg.

Discord leaned against a tree in front of me, chewing on a piece of wheat. He grinned wickedly at me. before he leaned in and whispered. "Boo." I shivered in response and recoiled, before immediately wincing and letting out a cry of pain from my red-hot crushed leg. "Oh, poor little thing." He tutted. He walked over and tilted my head up. My head was unable to move with the force of his two of his fingers - he was clearly immensely physically powerful. "Do you need some help?" He smiled before I felt pure agony in my leg. I shrieked and wriggled, and no doubt would have been crying if draconics had tear ducts, my mouth opening as I roared as loud as I could and tried to pull away from my leg. I wasn't thinking straight, reduced to a bestial state. Which is probably the reason I chomped down on eagle claw and bit down as hard as I could. He shrieked before he threw me across the ground and sent me flying into a tree.

"Dumb bitch!" He growled, his hand bleeding. And immediately, my determination was renewed. Gods didn't bleed. Spirits did. If it bled - it could die. And Discord didn't expect me to bite him - he wasn't omniscient. Ominpresent, maybe. Omnipotent, maybe. But not omniscient. My determination was dashed once more as my leg flared up with pain. I looked backwards and had to supress a cry - my leg had been torn off, messily. Probably the only reason I was conscious was due to my draconic heritage and the adrenaline in me. He raised his lions paw, and it began to glow pink before he paused and sighed. "Oh, yes. That deal." He grumbled. "I really didn't expect it to have it in yourself to teleport - I must confess how impressed I am. Although, you did forget a bit of yourself back there..." I whimpered in response at first, before I managed to form a fragment of a word - "g..." o forget your own head in the aether is what I wanted to say before the pain coursed through me.

He grinned. "Oh, I have a delicious idea. You'll succumb to your wounds at this rate. Too much of yourself is lost in the aether, and despite your resilience...you're going to die. But I did promise you a week. So, let me fix your body for you, hm?" He picked me up with a paw before giggling. I tried to pull away from his revolting touch before he sighed. "You draconics will never get it, will you? You can't defeat me. In fact - let me let you in on a little secret. This isn't the first time I've purged a species. Oh, the first was long ago - so, so long ago. But? The reasons the Wyverns and the Windigo aren't sapient? The reason the Quetzalcoatls and Draconequui are gone? The reason why Muryscinia is so small? All me, Tempest." He used my name, causing me to shiver. My eyes were wide as I fell to the ground from his grasp. "But, I am a man of my word, sadly. Here you go." I felt that same vile sensation of when he was physically touching me.I looked down and shivered, seeing my leg regrowing - but it wasn't my leg. It was black, caked in blood, throbbed with chaos magic so potent I could almost see it without using my magical senses. It was different, too, the scales weaker and thinner but more magically resistant, the claws sharper. The same happened for my left claw. I looked up at him confusedly, the pain fading as my new body parts began to fuse to my body through chaos magic.

"Oh, the dragon over there? His head isn't attached to his body anymore, so I doubt little old - should I say old Drael will mind." He smirked. "Enjoy those body parts, Tempest. And remember - you have one week to prepare before I find you again. And I will find you." For the last three words his eyes began glowing red, sending shivers down my spine before he disappeared with a pop. "Toodles!" His disembodied voice echoed.

There are a lot of magic types. But, three notable ones are Order, Chaos, and Harmony. The three Conceptual Elements, the Equilibric Elements - there are a lot of names for the same thing. Order is control and dominance, Chaos is change in information, and Harmony is working together for a common goal to loosely sum them all up. They all present themselves in colors depending on their strength. Weak/Strong. Order is white when its weak, black when it's strong and is mistaken for dark magic, while dark magic is an entirely separate entity. Harmony is many, many, many colors but often a softer gentle white or gold when its weak, and a rainbow when it's strong. Chaos is yellow and pink when it's weak, but red when it's strong. By "strong," I mean destructive. Red chaos magic is the most deadly type of magic. Fueled by rape, murder, destruction, storms of napalm and fire, natural disasters and the destruction of continents - this is all part of red chaos magic. This is not to say that pink chaos can't represent this too, but more often red is chaos in its purely destructive state where pink and yellow is just...chaos.

I stared at my leg, looking at the fading thin line of yellow around where it fused to my skin and I shuddered. It was revolting. Disgusting. Only out of self-preservation would I not rip it off and throw it to the side. But my journey wasn't done. It had just started.

The bag of holding was still around my throat. I had books inside it - and I had newfound knowledge. I couldn't beat Discord on my own, but the aether had shown me a gryphon, and had shown me a storm. That was a sign. I had to go to Gryphum. I had to see King Gryphus, and I had to...I don't know yet. I don't know.

---

I read as I walked. My magic was drained to the point where casting a spell of brute force would probably melt me. I had five books in my possession, now. A book on Spirits, a book on Chaos magic, a book on Dark magic, a book on Combat magic, and a book bound in red dragon scales that I could just not open, despite how hard I tried. I had decided to read the book on chaos magic to see what exactly I was up against. Chaos magic was the term for power that derived off of chaos and entropy, change and decay in information respectively. It wasn't forced to do your bidding like Order magic or Harmony magic, but rather guided and coaxed into performing the functions desired - but there were no specifics.

Three unicorns walk into a bar. They hold a competition as to who is the best spellcaster - one is a mage of Order, one is a mage of Harmony, and the last is a mage of Chaos. They first decide to teleport. The mage of Order summons up his magic and moves space around him, standing still as everything else moves. He's exhausted by this method of teleportation. The mage of Harmony travels through the aether - I'd like to note that the term "Harmony" does not just mean Harmonic magic, but rather all magic that isn't Order or Chaos. She's tired, but not exhausted. The mage of Chaos creates a wormhole around himself that teleports him there instantly. He's still fine.

They next decide to summon up a chocolate cake. The mage of Order summons one from somewhere else. The mage of Harmony creates one from magic. The Chaos mage has the easiest time, but the worst result - his magic is guided into a "cake shape" but there are no details given, and Chaos fills in the rest. It could be a vanilla cake, a frisbee shaped cake, a cake made from antimatter that would then explode and violently kill them all...

I believe you understand enough to distinguish the magic types now. I certainly did. Discord was chaos incarnate, but he still couldn't go incredibly precise because his magic wouldn't allow him to. Mine could. While he could lift dragons and teleport mountains, it would probably be a lot, lot harder for him to use tiny telekinetic actions. I was on my way to Gryphum, likely going to arrive there within two days. And honestly? Not much happened on my way there.

---

The beast was huge. At the edge of the gryphon-pony border, marked by a wooden spiked fence, was a small bottleneck gate where some gryphons were stationed with crossbows and armor. They were a little distracted right now, though, by the abomination - a chaos beast, straight out of legend. Said to be made from pure chaos magic and to take any size, shape and form, and that Discord was one of them. Although Discord was a draconequus, and had no relation to a chaos beast save for his role as Chaos King.

Three gryphon corpses were on the ground - really two and one was dying on a wooden spike. The spiked fences were smashed, and the beast's hide was littered with bolts, blood oozing from it. It was tall, about the size of my mother with large thick curled legs and a small body, with two great fangs and wriggling tendrils attached to its legs. It smashed its legs down like a child, its tendrils whipping around and trying to slash at the gryphons. The only advantage they had on it was the air - it had tendrils on its body but they were a lot slimmer and a lot less.

It had been two days, and my magic had fully regenerated. And allowing a chaos beast into Gryphum would be detrimental to me, and the King would definitely like it if I helped his subjects. And I was the last drakon alive - he would have reason to talk to me, most likely. I shot into action, desperate to try out some of the spells I had learned.

The first was a warspell. A stone "bullet" struck the creature in the stomach, pushing into its skin before it erupted violently. The eruption managed to cut through its skin, causing blood to began oozing from the wound and causing the beast to rumble. I tackled one of the legs with my physical strength - my mother was about 100 feet tall, and I was slightly less than a fourth of her size. The beast began to fall before more legs sprouted from it and it straightened itself up, legs beginning to smash down on me with extreme strength. The gryphons began yelling, causing them to target the legs that held it upright as I readied my magic once more. I summoned two blades of air and shoved them into the stomach wound on the beast, cutting the stomach of the creature open and causing its blood to gush out of it in a thick stream. It's skin was thick, but my blades of air were able to scratch dragon scale. As it fell to the ground, dying, the creature shrieked, wriggled and began to vibrate - the gryphons began to yell at me, seemingly angrily, although they weren't speaking all-speak. I had killed it, hadn't I? What was the problem?

It turned into hundreds of little spider-like beasts that began crawling all over me and the gryphons, targeting me moreso. I stamped on them with my forelegs, and they seemed to avoid my back right leg and left paw. I turned around and began crushing them from the behind before I spun around and let a spell of flame erupt from my mouth. Most of the spiders were cooked alive, and were now liquefying and condensing into a solid object. Finally - a creature from my nightmares, one that I had only seen in legends formed. A shoggoth. A huge mass of shifting, liquid-like flesh with tentacles, tendrils, arms, eyes and mouths too many, they were said to be manifestations of pure hatred.

From behind me a gryphon with a blade shot forward. He slashed off two of the Shoggoth's limbs with one blow, before pointing at the severed flesh. "CYRD!" He roared out in the language of glyphs. I nodded in response, understanding his meaning as I opened my mouth. Drawing from my horns, I created a thin cushion of heat before an orb of energy formed in the back of my throat and a torrent of icy energy froze the shoggoth's flesh solid. The gryphon with the blade, and the gryphons using their claws began hacking the shoggoth to bits. One was stabbed in the chest, causing him to scream out - and in response I summoned up three air blades and cleaved the shoggoth into three sections that I then froze. This was very, very taxing on my magic admittedly, but it was worth it - the shoggoth chaos beast cracking into crystals.

As two of the gryphons picked up the wounded one and began to fly off, the bladed Gryphon walked towards me. He pointed at the remnants of the shoggoth. "Boryd reosr...uhm...doreus cyrd reosr?" Body restore denial cold restore. Body restores - cold denies restore. So chaos beasts are weak to cold. This makes sense - cold is the absence of energy, and chaos is energy.

I nodded in response. "...Do you speak allspeak?" I tilted my head to the side. The gryphon blinked then facepalmed. "Oh...yes. Draconics can speak all-speak. It's...even in the name. Dear Gryphus I'm dumb." He shook his head. "Yes, I do. Commander Durion at your service. Thank you, draconic, for your assistance. May I ask why you're here?"

"You're fighting a chaos beast." I nodded. "Have you done this before?"
Durion nodded. "Yes. Decapitate them or freezing them works to kill them. Why?"
"I'm assuming you know who Discord is." I spoke, trying to get to my point. Durion nodded in response, raising a questioning eyebrow. He knew who Discord was - good. He should be impressed by this then.
"He killed my people. He killed my King - the Spirit of War. He tried to kill me, twice, and he failed." No, a bit of a lie - he had tried to wipe out all drakons when he fought Bellum, not specifically me, and he could have killed me the second time but instead chose to play a game. But this sounded more impressive, and if I was to see the King I would need impressive. Durion stared at me for a moment before bursting out laughing, holding his stomach. "O...oh...that's a new one." He giggled.

I stared at him. "I'm not lying." I spoke. He stared at me, looking me in the eye. After a few moments he blinked. "...You're not kidding." He murmured. "Why are you here, drak...drakoness?" He had paused to search for the word.
"My name is..." I paused for a moment. I could say "Tempest," but I could also go for an honorific to make myself sound more prominent. No, there was no need. My credentials, exaggerated were still enough - and I had to see the king. Although..I don't know why. Would this all be for nothing? Would the king turn me away? What...what was I doing?

No. I couldn't think like that. I didn't know the details - but I had to beat Discord. Because...if I don't...if I don't try...what else would I do? What else do I have? Nothing. And, he hates me because I'm draconic. I had to...do something.

"Tempest." I answered after a moment of silence. "I'm here to see the King."
"The King isn't taking visitors. He's busy. Preparing for Discord."
"He needs to talk to me. I know Discord's motives and plans." That was a bit of a lie - I knew that he wanted to kill the draconics, the Spirits, and the Gryphons to draw out Gryphus. He had probably already killed Misika and Draelos if he had come to bother me, and was likely winding up to kill Gryphus. We had five days, though.
"...Alright." He said after a moment, sighing. "Let's go."

---

Me and Durion had walked for about half an hour, as I couldn't fly. I was hungry, a little tired, but generally fine - he wasn't very talkative, thankfully. But let's take a bit of time to talk about the nations of Liogella. There are five, very, very loose categories - the Draconics, the Equines, the Chimaera, the Fae, and the Lupine.

The Equines include the ponies of Equestria, the horses of Saddle Arabia, the Kirin, the zebras of the Murysicinia Jungles.
The Draconics include the dragons, drakons, quetzal, draconequui, windigo, dragoons, and serpents.
The Chimaera include the Hydra, the Gryphons, the Sphinx, the Chimera.
The Fae include the Fairies and the Breezies.
The Lupine are limited to Timberwolves, Frostwolves, and the Wolves, although Wolves themselves haven't been seen in centuries.

Those are the categories of species. The nations though? Generally, you can say Draconic, Equestria, Murysicinian, and Gryphon and you'll be correct. The draconic keep to themselves, having a loose alliance with other draconic races. Equestria is the largest nation of ponies. Muryscinians have to work together and are grouped under the catch all title because of the harshness of their land. The Gryphon Empire is noteworthy.

Gryphons are stronger than pegasi, with better eyesight if a bit slower. They tend to be more militaristic, under the Gryphon King. A Gryphon King can be any gender - male or female, they're still called the Gryphon King. The nation, the territory's name changes depending on who the Gryphon King is. For King Gryphus, it was Gryphum. For the King before him, King Zeus, Zeuserum. Et cetera. The architecture there is honestly quite beautiful. Large stone fortresses and structures, towers, a palace of marble, homes made of brick foundations and wooden walls.

Every Gryphon is trained in combat, until they graduate school - then they have the option of joining the military, the guard, or choosing their own route in path. But they still have required monthly combat training, to keep the entire nation on its edge. Despite this, the Gryphons seemed peaceful except for the fact that there was a lot of security and a lot of weapons as we passed through the towns on our way towards the city. There were some shifty looks at me due to my size, some gasps and shocked expressions at my blackened leg - Durion either didn't notice or didn't care, probably the latter, but overall everyone seemed peaceful, calm, and...

Happy. I liked Gryphum, so far. They weren't as skittish as ponies who would panic at the sight of something that wasn't a pony, they were open to meat-eaters, and they had a beautiful home. Durion had lead me down a marble road from the gate that connected to "Guard Point," a small fortress where all the guard posts were connected to by. There were tubes filled with air or something, I'm not sure about the details, but it was for sending notes for aid as fast as possible to Guard Point. Guard Point itself was a large fort with mounted ballista, crossbow and sword wielding Gryphons, and large stone walls. As we stood in front of the gate, I shivered as I could feel the ballista aiming at me, dots of light on me where they'd strike if they fired. Durion called up - "Hail, Adreus!" He pounded his chest. "Adreus," I'm assuming, was a gryphon in extra heavy armor with no crossbow and instead a simple but large greatsword, stood atop the fortress.

"Hail, Durion." He pounded his chest in the same place. A Gryphon salute, of sorts, I'm assuming. "Your...friend here is a-"
"I can speak for myself. My name is Tempest." I interrupted.
"...Tempest here..is a strange sight in these parts." He crossed his forelimbs over his chest as he leaned on the stone wall. "What brings you here, away from your post?"
"Our drakoness-" he put emphasis on the word, Adreus raising an eyebrow and his eyes landing on my back leg, "friend here has information about the Chaos Lord. And she claims that Discord-" Adreus scowled, causing Durion to stumble over his words, "the...uhm, Chaos King, tried to kill her - twice - and failed. She wants to see the king."
Adreus burst out laughing. "Hah! And you believe her? Oh, little Durion, ever heard of a liar? Yes, a shockingly novel concept, I know. How's to know she isn't just a drakoness assassin?" I growled in response.
"I tell the truth. He dropped the top of Mount Olympus on me. I teleported away, lost my paw and my leg. His magic is on me. Use your magic senses. I know you have them, even without active magic."

I could feel Adreus and Durion's senses landing on me, the eyes of other Gryphon's moving to examine me. They both shuddered at the same time, before Adreus drew his sword. "So you have the Chaos Lord's magic on you. Any last words, Chaos Creature?" I stepped back, mouth opening before Durion cut in.

"Adreus, calm down. This drakoness is the reason I'm not dead, and that there isn't a Chaos Beast heading towards Guard Point." Adreus sheathed his sword, grunting as he stared at me. "That leg is a dragon's leg - and you know how he likes his Chimaera. She's telling the truth." Adreus turned his head to the side and let out a long sigh.

"Fine. She can go see the king. Stay with her though - if there's any trouble? It's on you. I mean it, Durion."
Durion nodded. "Thank you." The gate to Guard Point opened, and Durion began leading me through. I turned to him, blinking. "...Thank you." I really meant it - he was clearly sticking his neck out for me. Durion shrugged in response. "We were being crushed. The Chaos Beasts have gotten stronger. We were gonna die. I'm just repaying you."

I nodded. "Adreus is...aggressive."
Durion nodded. "He is. He had some poor life circumstances that lead him to where he was, but he does mean the best. He's just a bit paranoid. Thinks everyone is out to get us." I nodded in response.

The city was contained within stone walls, the entrance being through Guard Point. There were hundreds of Gryphons with crossbows to shoot out any aerial offenders, the homes themselves being made of stone and some wood. There was a large stone palace in the center, probably where we were heading. Durion confirmed this as he began walking towards it with renewed vigor - we walked for about five minutes before we stood in front of the palace doors. Durion nodded at the two guards stationed by the door. The guards nodded back before opening them.

The palace had an exterior of stone. Calling it a "palace" was a it of a lie, while it did have one or two large majestic spires of stone, it was more accurately a fort - made from squared off stone bricks, with thick two layered walls where gryphons were stationed in between to be able to shoot out of. But the inside of the palace was majestic. Floors made of smooth white marble, the walls adorned with murals and gold. It was kind of like someone having a strong cube that was hard to break with a diamond inside.

The palace opened and lead up a flight of stairs. Durion lead me up the stairs, the guards stationed all the way along the path (Current Note: Gryphons do not mess with their security at all.) keeping a watchful eye on me, but generally seemed to be fine with my presence no doubt thanks to Durion. Then, we entered the throne room - and at the end, I saw him.

A pony is about four feet tall. A gryphon is five, an alicorn is seven. I was about fifteen feet. King Gryphus, for who else could it be, was a huge eight foot tall Gryphon with a scarred face, the tips of his feathers red and his wings and claws with sharp metal tips. He rested on his throne, his yellow eyes tracking my every minute movement. I froze when I saw him, before Durion began pushing me along and I continued along the path. We stood infront of him, and King Gryphus stood up, tilting his head up to stare at me. And I could feel the power inside of him.

I had met three live Spirits, and seen six total. Discord was terrifying because of his appearance and what he could do. Bellum was terrifying because of the raw power dripping from him and his huge size - although I'd like to mention that Bellum was relatively young, only around 6,000, when most draconics were considered to reach adulthood at the age of 10,000, and that most drakons lived in the dragonlands away from the capital.

Gryphus was not terrifying, but he commanded respect. He was infinitely more powerful than me, and was considered to be one of the weaker Spirits, yet the Alicorn Spirits were some of the strongest and Discord beat all three of them at once. He wore some simple armor made of gray and white metal that covered his vitals and left his joints unarmored, his beak also clad in metal. His eyes pierced through me and into my soul as he spoke,

"I've been told that you have some information for me." His voice wasn't particularly special, but the weight he put behind his words made me shiver.
"Y-..." I coughed. "Ahem. Yes, King Gryphu-"
"Drop the formalities and be out with it."

I blinked then nodded in response. I wasn't entirely used to someone in a royal position being so informal, although with the militaristic nature of the gryphons I probably shouldn't be surprised.

"Discord wiped out the drakons. I'm not sure about the other draconics, but their spirits are dead. The Alicorn Spirits are dead - to my knowledge, you and Discord-" the guards shifted uncomfortably at his name, "are the last spirits alive. I know this because Discord tried to kill me twice - and he fail-" I spoke, but was interrupted.

"Enough." He shut his eyes and sighed. "I know your story is true. I can feel Discord moving, writhing through the air. I could feel Draelos being thrown into a mountain. I could feel all of this." He shook his head. "Bellum being dead though...that mean's he'll come for me next." He paused. "No. That means he's already here." He began pacing while talking to himself, and his line of reasoning lead me to dread.

"Discord doesn't fail to kill mortals. No mortal could withstand his torrent - no, thats a lie. Starswirl...but he's been...hm. But you're not strong enough. You - your leg." And suddenly he was there. It wasn't like teleportation, he didn't shift through the aether magically. It wasn't Discord tearing space and warping through it impossibly - he was one moment somewhere else and the next he was there. He ran his claws over my black scales and I shuddered, the vile feeling of chaos magic washing over me once again. "It's his magic."

"...You're Discord."
"No! I'm not!" I interrupted loudly, shaking my head. "He killed Bellum and tried to wipe out my species - then he dropped a mountain on me. I teleported. My paw was torn off and my leg was crushed. He healed it from a dragon that was there-" and suddenly with a gesture from Gryphus, our surroundings shifted. Me and Gryphus were no longer surrounded by guards, instead out by where the dragon Discord had thrown out the mountain.

Gryphus' eyes widened as he stared at the missing leg of the dragon - Drael, was it? and the missing paw. He turned to me, his wings spread and lightning crackling over his feathers. I could feel the power radiating from him. "Tell me everything." He whispered.

And so I did. And when it started, I couldn't stop it - words spilling out of me like lava out of a volcano, a pressure and weight I didn't realize were on me moving out of me as I got it all out. The pain I felt over my mother. The directionless I felt - was what I was doing right? Was it all for nothing? The pain I felt about the fact that, despite how I wanted to cry I couldn't. About how I wanted to eat and kill a little colt, about how I ate the alicorn spirits. And then about my story - everything since the taffy scented apocalypse.

I didn't realize I had it all pent up. I didn't realize how much there was, the days blurred by so fast...so fast. Gryphus listened attentively the entire time, only commenting when I was finished.

"We have five days to prepare for Discord. Then he'll strike." He paused. "He clearly has some strange fetish for you-" I blinked and blushed in response to that, causing Gryphus to roll his eyes, "sorry, obsession, which means you're a vital asset...but I don't like that leg of yours." He shook his head. "Discord doesn't do gifts without a catch. But it's been too long since the wound set in and it can't be healed normally...hm. I'll see about getting the chaos magic drained from it." He rubbed his chin. "You're the last drakon. He has a confirmed hatred for draconics, they did kill Glory after all...and you need to do something." He nodded. "Alright. I can work with this." And with that same not-quite-teleportation, we were back in the throne room.

King Gryphus stood up and stretched his wings out. "Durion. Tell Adreus to speak to me." Durion nodded and began flying off immediately without a word. Gryphus turned to one of the guards. "Rothsgard, tell the others to be on high alert. If there's a chaos beast. If there's an abnormal amount of butterflies. If there's an elongated gust of wind that they weren't informed about beforehand by me, you, or Adreus, I want to know. If someone hides or fakes any information, I want to speak to them personally."
"Yes sir." The guard, who I assumed to be Rothsgard, saluted then began flying off.

He turned to another guard. "Rothsgard-" were there multiple Rothsgard? Wait, no. Allspeak was a universal language, but Gryphons still did have a distinct language. I didn't know much about it, but Rothsgard was probably a title. It was pronounced "Wroth's Guard," so maybe something along the lines of...Wrath Guard, or Mighty Guard? This was a bit of a stretch, but it did seem possible.

"I want you to alert the Archmage that I need to talk to him personally. Immediately. Yes, and clear my calendar for the day - I have much to do." He rolled his wrist in a motion that gestured for the Rothsgard to leave. He turned to me, finally, and spoke.

"You have told me much. Thank you for that. You'll be provided with four days of shelter, food, and training - but after that you must leave." I blinked and immediately nodded in response, that was much more than I hoped for from him. Honestly, I expected him to ask me to leave immediately and allow him to fight Discord alone - not that I would, but that he would ask me to.

"My archmage will refine your basics of magic. What's your affinity?"
"Air. Chaos. Light." I recited slowly. And for a split second, I saw a cocktail of strange emotions flit across the Gryphon King's face before he gave a resigned nod.
"He'll refine your basics of magic. I will personally teach you the magics I think will most benefit you. Understand that this is a privilege that very few have had." I wasn't able to see my own face, but I'm sure that if I was able to I'd see my jaw hitting the floor. A Spirit. Not just offering in exchange for something, but stating factually that he would teach me. The knowledge of dozens of ageless creatures that had seen the entire world pass by, passed down to me.

What was special about my affinity? It just meant the magic types that I was most attuned to. Air, Chaos, and Light. Did it have some dual meaning that I was unaware of? The only thing I could find strange with that is that I had met three spirits, and two of those spirits had something to do with my affinity. But there was no Spirit of Light, Apollo would be the closest but he was very, very dead. Although, I did eat him...did that have to do with something?

...Maker. I ate him. I ate the corpse of a once-living being. And I felt nothing for it.

No. No, no no no. No it wasn't...it wasn't my fault. It wasn't a mistake. He was dead - no way he was coming back. His body would serve me better than it would someone else - without him I would have died. I wouldn't have been able to teleport.

Right? Yes. Yes, right. That's the truth.

Gryphus stamped his foot down. "Tempest!" He said forcefully, no aggression behind his words but snapping me out of my downward spiral nonetheless. "My Rothsgard will take you to the room we used for the dragon's visits. Please - rest. You need it."

I nodded in response. I don't remember the last time I slept - the last time I had a full meal. The last time I had time to think, really absorb what I had done. They lead me towards the bed and I fell onto it, before drifting into a state of deep sleep.

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